Above the 40 (August 9, 2017) – A Stock Market Pushing Against A Bearish Divergence

AT40 = 45.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 53.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 11.1 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral (first day of downgrade) Commentary The stock market had a weak open but a strong close. On the heels of ratcheting … Read more

The Surprising Implications of Periods of Extremely Low Volatility – A Follow-Up

The volatility index, the VIX, has closed below 11 for 5 straight days and 22 of the last 25. These stretches of extremely low volatility (I will now shorten it to ELV for convenience) include a 14-year low for the VIX. The interruption in this streak of ELV included an abrupt wake-up call where the … Read more

Above the 40 (April 24, 2017) – The Stock Market Breaks Out With A French Fly

AT40 = 61.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 63.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 10.8 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: bullish Commentary Going into the first round of the French Presidential election, I figured the best case scenario was the absence of … Read more

Above the 40 (April 13, 2017) – The S&P 500 Suffers A Convincing End to Bullish Divergence

AT40 = 38.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 57.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 16.0 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish (notable caveats explained below) Commentary The 50-day moving average (DMA) is no longer golden. It figures that on a day … Read more

Above the 40 (March 2, 2017) – An S&P 500 Attitude Adjustment and A SNAP Judgement

AT40 = 58.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 68.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 11.8 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary And this is why I appreciate hedging…and using Caterpillar (CAT) as my most common hedge was particularly fortuitous today. On … Read more

Above the 40 (March 1, 2017) – The S&P 500 Coil Springs Into March Rate Hike Expectations

AT40 Status: 64.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 Status: 70.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX Status: 12.5 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary Two days ago, I titled my Above the 40 update “The S&P 500 Coiled In Anticipation.” I described the building … Read more

The Surprising Implications of Periods of Extremely Low Volatility

The volatility index, the VIX, has closed below 11 for 2 straight days, 3 of the last 6, and 6 of the last 13 days. Source: FreeStockCharts.com These low levels of the VIX seem dangerously low, and I have labelled them as such in my recent “Above the 40” posts. Yet, I have discovered the … Read more

T2108 Update (January 25, 2017) – A Bullish S&P 500 Breakout Meets A Bearish VIX Breakdown

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

T2108 Update (January 24, 2017) – Bullish Writing On the Walls…With Footnotes

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

The Next Fed Rate Gets Rescheduled for “Never”

The U.S. Federal Reserve failed to hike rates in its June policy meeting just as expected. More importantly, the Fed left alone its projection of the appropriate policy path for 2016 at 0.9%. The Fed trimmed its expectation for 2017 from 1.9% to 1.6% and slashed 2018 from 3.0% to 2.4%. The “long run” dropped … Read more